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Global Game Jam 2013 : My first ever global game jam

It’s a world wide event. Game Developers from around the world get together to make a game in less than 48 hours.

Venues are pre-arranged by Regional Organisers and people either work independently or form teams. Every year, participants are given an inspirational sound, word, phrase or image, that they must build their game around. There is also a list of voluntary diversifiers to give more of a design challenge to participants.

The team I was in were all first time jammers. The goal we gave ourselves was to create a small, slick, bug-free and complete game. We all feel like we achieved this goal.

The topic we were given was the sound of a heartbeat. After brainstorming for a few hours, we decided to make a small arcade game called Sonar Pulse. You can play it online hereor watch our gameplay preview here or on youtube.

Sonar Pulse is a casual arcade shooter which merges strategy with timing to create a new level of finger-biting action. In it, you protect your territory by using your sonar pulse to intercept and destroy all submarines.

My main role on this project was the game’s Art Director and Artist. A mixture of 2D and 3D art assets were created to achieve the look we were going for. Studio Bento, the guys behind the amazing documentary, GameLoading : Rise of the Indies even made a video about the Jam and our team was lucky enough to be featured on it.

Team members included:

Tom Harris

Nick London

Murray Lorden

Pranee McKinlay

I helped out as a volunteer, doing a bit of layout & formatting work, offering support, and also putting together name tags. It was a fun experience which I would gladly do again!